861.24/8–2644: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
2045. ReDepts 1380 June 1 and reembs 2009, June 6. After careful consideration of your telegram the War Department has renewed its request for certain USSR statistics. Statistics are requested showing 1943 production, imports, and consumption, and stocks as of January 1, 1943, for the following commodities: platinum, tungsten, cobalt, vanadium, iridium rhodium, mica, especially high quality large sheets quartz crystals, manganese ore, especially high grade metallurgical ores.
In a letter from the chief of the materials branch of the War Department it was pointed out that these statistics are urgently needed in planning and scheduling the production of war equipment. The War Department’s inability to predict United States future supplies of platinum from the Soviet Union has prevented the development of various military implements, and army engineers have been handicapped in designing war material based on the use of platinum since it has not been deemed safe to schedule platinum consuming war material beyond the limits of supply from other sources. Some military programs have had to be cut back because of conservation necessitated by the limited platinum supply. Similar reasons exist in the case of the other commodities mentioned herein.
Accordingly, the Embassy is requested to make every effort to obtain these data and cable them to the Department as soon as possible. You may assure Soviet authorities that special precautions will be taken under our security regulations to safeguard these data from falling into enemy hands.18
- On September 7 the War Department, having heard from General Deane in Moscow, decided that the need for statistics was not sufficiently great to make an issue of the matter and would leave it to General Deane’s judgment.↩